Vote: Toy of the Year Awards (FBI vs Barbie?)

Well, the FBI has some concerns about this particular toy... no, they aren't afraid that terrorists will use it to detect our infrastructure...

With a new, high-tech Barbie now on the market, the FBI has issued a warning to parents.

This Barbie has a camera embedded in the iconic doll, with a lens in front and a color, LCD screen on her back. She's getting rave reviews in the toy community, and was even nominated for the 2011 Toy of the Year award.

But the FBI warns that it could become a tool for child pornography production.

The video Barbie doll came out in July and so far there have not been any reported cases of misuse. But the FBI says parents need to keep an eye on what their kids are filming. ...

I'd guess that Video Barbie will be popular with kids because we used to have hours of fun with toys that could record and play back our voices. As the FBI says, parental supervision is the key.

I wonder if the FBI was involved in getting the Harry Potter Nimbus 2000 Broom that vibrated removed from stores?

Well, this was one way to keep Harry Potter fans interested as they grew up. Modeled after Harry's first broom, Mattel's now discontinued battery-operated Nimbus 2000 featured a grooved stick and handle for kids who wanted to ride it around the house. The dubious part: it vibrated. Some of the (now deleted) comments on Amazon were so good, they had to be written with a wink: "I'm 32 and enjoy riding the broom as much as my 12 yr old and 7 year old," wrote one satisfied customer. We bet.

A vibrating broom is pretty safe compared to what gave us "the witch on the broom" image in the first place. The little known history of witches flying on broomsticks: Women used to make bread by stirring it with broomsticks and the mold ergot on the broomsticks caused hallucinations (and flying dreams, and more) when absorbed through the skin. Other things were added to "flying ointments" for broom riding that resulted in wild, wierd and pleasurable experiences. This included seeing monsters and demons, some bad trips, insanity and probably some poisoning deaths. (More: link, link, link, link)